Applications

Elithion products in the real world

Examples of actual applications in which Elithion products are in use today;
from lawn-mowers to airplanes, from robots to sea-port tugs, from solar systems to cell-phone towers in India.

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Description

Traction

Production EVs

EV conversions

PHEV conversions, V2G

Race vehicles

Heavy duty vehicles

Other vehicles

Mobile power

Marine house power

APUs

Robots

Stationary power

Telecom

Solar

Grid

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Elithion has helped various EV production companies leapfrog their competition by offering them an off-the-shelf BMS that is immediately available in small production quantities.

The Lithiumate BMS is well suited for production EVs, due to its configurability and versatility.

Elithion is prepared to ramp up production to match the ramp up of the EV manufacturer.

Elithion's Lithiumate BMS is widely used in passenger electric vehicles.

Hundreds of individuals have converted ICE cars to electric using Li-Ion battery packs and Lithiumate BMSs.

They have chosen the Lithiumate BMS because of its powerful capabilities, in field configurability, and a versatility which allows it compatibility with the great variety of permutations of EV components that may be used in an EV conversion.

Managing a traction pack in a PHEV presents a unique set of challenges:

The pack may be operated in two distinct modes, Charge Deplete or Charge Sustain, each with its own behavior.

While the method of SOC calculation in the Charge Deplete mode is similar to the one in EVs, and the method in the Charge Sustain mode is similar to the one in HEVs, the integration of these two methods is not straightforward and requires some finesse.

PHEV conversions must perform not one but two separate SOC evaluations: the actual SOC of the traction pack, and the reported SOC to achieve the desired behavior in the vehicle.

Over the years, Elithion has developed a significant experience in the PHEV (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) field, and has developed elegant PHEV algorithms and solutions.

PHEV conversions

Several companies convert the Toyota Prius to PHEV by adding a PHEV pack and a charger.

A significant number of these companies use the Lithiumate BMS to manage their PHEV packs.

Custom PHEVs

Elithion's BMS technology was used by a pioneer in PHEV conversion, Hybrids Plus. That company converted a number of Prius and Ford Escape HEVs to Plug-in hybrids.

Elithion has continued that process, having converted an HEV to PHEV for the Global-E X-Prize team and a Ford Escape HEV to PHEV for a large cell manufacturer.

Elithion's Lithiumate BMS is used in racing motorcycles and cars around the world.

Formula hybrid

The Lithiumate is the preferred BMS in Formula Hybrid race vehicles:

2013 race: 2 of the top ten vehicles, including winning team of the electric division: Dartmouth College

2012 race: 4 of the top ten vehicles, including winning team of the electric division: University of Kansas

Out of four companies that provided those electric Terminal Tractors, three were been fitted with Elithion's Lithiumate Pro BMS.

In particular, the Lithiumate BMS has been selected for hydrogen/electric HEVs due to its ability to properly handle their SOC calculation, and because of how easily such an off-the-shelf BMS can be configured for a particular vehicle.

Step vans

Delivery companies (local service providers as well as international shipping companies) are eager to reduce service costs and emissions, by replacing their step vans with hybrid or electric vehicles.

One of the first companies to offer an all-electric step van is Boulder EV, whose batteries are protected by a Lithiumate BMS.

Mining equipment

Because safety is a paramount concern underground, battery powered hevay vehicles are preferred.

Elithion BMSs manage the battery packs of such vehicle from multiple manufacturers in the US and Canada.

While the focus of electric vehicles is on cars, in reality electric traction has been applied to numerous other vehicles, such as airplanes, trains, boats, submarines,... and even lawn mowers.

Airplanes

The availability of large Li-Ion traction packs has finally allowed the development of electric airplanes.

In an EV airplane battery reliability is paramount; only the most trustworthy BMS may be used, and the Lithiumate BMS has a proven record.

In aviation applications, the size and weight of a BMS are a concern: by virtue of being distributed, the Lithiumate BMS adds a negligible volume to a pack, and little weight.

Trains

Diesel trains use electric motors to achieve tremendous torque, both in traction and in regenerative braking.
Typically, the energy from regenerative braking is wasted in heat.
Adding a power pack on a diesel train allows it to recuperate a significant portion of that energy, which can then be used for subsequent acceleration.

Light rail trains do not normally need batteries: they get their electricity from their grid.
However, overhead lines are unsightly and dangerous in a city park.
In that case, an on board pack allows the train to cross a city park without overhead power lines.
Elithion prepared a study for a light rail company on implementing such a traction pack.

Boats

Boats may use electric power for trolling motors, for short travle distances.

Li-ion cells are preferred because of their longevity compared to lead acid.

Elithion's Lithiumate Lite BMS is ideal for such applications thanks to its simplicity.

In marine applications, battery storage is used to power on board electrical demand so that the engine may be turned off.

More and more, lead acid batteries are being replaced with Li-ion batteries, because of their lower maintainance requirements.

The distributed topology of the Lithiumate BMS is especially well matched to the typical 24 V house power battery, using large Li-ion cells placed in tight spaces.

Auxiliary Power Units result in significant fuel savings by proving power (other than traction power) while stationary,
allowing the engine to be turned off.

Despite their initial low cost, Lead Acid batteries are being phased out of solar installations,
due to their short lifetime and therefore high long-term cost.

Replacing lead acid batteries with Li-ion batteries in a solar installation results in greater reliability and lower maintenance costs.

However, today's charge controllers and bidirectional inverters for solar installation are designed for Lead Acid batteries, and are not directly compatible with a Li-ion BMS.

Therefore, normally, Li-ion batteries are not a drop-in replacement for Lead Acid batteries in solar installations.

Thanks to its expertise in Li-ion batteries and to its inside understanding of equipment for grid-tie inverters and charge controllers,
Elithion is able to offer effective solutions to Li-ion replacements of Lead Acid batteries in solar installations.

The versatility of the Elithion Lithiumate BMS allows it to be the heart of a Li-ion battery that is compatible with Lead-acid-ready solar equipment.

Land based (and sometime mobile) batteries are used to assist the power grid at times of high demand, and to supplement energy in off-grid systems when alternative energy sources are not available.

While these applications have typically used lead acid batteries, today they more and more use Li-Ion batteries.

Elithion BMSs have the long term reliability required by such systems, and the ability to handle long operating times without drift in the estimated SOC.

At times of high demand on the electrical grid, the utilities are forced to put into service older, more expensive, and dirtier power plants to handle the peak load.

Today, utilities are starting to rely on Distributed Resources (DR) to meet that demand, cleanly and at a lower operating cost.

Such resources include very large battery packs, including Li-Ion packs.

The Elithion Lithiumotive BMS is designed to handle as many as 65000 cells, and as much as 65 MW, making it ideal for such applications.

V2G

V2G (Vehicle To grid) systems are unique in that the "charger" may not only transfer energy from the grid to a vehicle's traction pack (to charge it) but also from the pack to the grid (to enhance the supply at times of need).
Therefore, at any given time, the current may flow in either direction.

The Elithion Lithiumate and Lithiumotive BMSs are unique in that they can use bidirectional "source" current sensors, in order to accommodate both charging current from a charger and discharging current to an inverter.

Elithion staff was developing V2G products in 2007, in the early days of that technology.
Elithion products draw from that experience, by including V2G compatibility into its BMS products.